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It's funny because Dave's clinic hasn't even started yet and I already made a "stunning" technique observation just looking at the pictures of Dave's drives on his Driving School flyer. Don't want to get off topic but there is not a technique thread here and it does apply to Dave's Driving School since he will be addressing this in his clinic.

This is an observation that I have never really heard anyone really talk about so I will appreciate anyone who wants to chime in and elaborate, especially the higher rated players who browse this thread. For all intents and purposes I will call it the "Backhand Axis Alignment Angle" or "Power Tilt."

It appears that there is a stunning similarity amongst the 990 and higher rated backhand players we all observe in the region. There are probably also many 980 and above that share this trait as well, but I would say generally this is a trait you see amongst the 990 and above backhand throwers.

Take a look at the attached image and you will see that I first drew a line from head to toe down Dave Feldberg's body demonstrating the proper alignment, right after the snap. Dave's throwing arm is parallel with his shoulders and you can see the disc has just popped out of his hand. Look how he's lined up from his NOSE to BELLY BUTTON to KNEE to TOE.

What you see is that he positions his body at an approximate 20 degree tilt, which forces all his body weight to lean into the release, thereby generating effortless power and control. This angle is actually similar to the Earth's axis which is not perfectly straight vertical. Earth's axis is actually 23.4 degrees.

What I did next was copy and paste that exact same 20 degree line and pasted it over Tyler Christensen's body where he is throwing a practice roller at hole 1 at Pier Park (2008 Rose City Open Finals.) Tyler's throwing arm is a little earlier than Dave's position but what you see is that the 20 degree angle is identical. Most of us must contort out body to get the disc to land at the correct roller angle, but Tyler accomplishes this with understable disc selection, and throws his roller with a hyzer release angle. If you then watch the YouTube video of Tyler during the actual finals, he is the only one who actually got a roller to stand up correctly and leave himself a putt.

Then I copy and pasted the same line over Brody Miller's drive from the lead card of the 2004 Beaver State Fling showcase final 9. Brody's photo is a little later than Dave's drive, as his throwing arm is already in the back position and his head has already followed through but you can clearly see his body is entirely locked into the 20 degree angle.

Then compare these guys with the 2004 Eugene Celebration Hole 15 random player throwing photos gallery of random card carrying PDGA members from random divisions including Pro Open. This is not to make fun of anybody's form but the point of the idea was to shoot as many peoples drives to see the similarities and differences between random players form and technique.

What can be observed from this? The majority of players around 990 and above have that 20 degree "axis alignment angle" locked down, while most of the rest of us are zig zag, hunched over, mickey mouse, humpty dumpty, and all over the place except on that nice clean 20 degree line.

It appears that most of us mortal humans are releasing the disc either too straight up and down or too hunched over the plant foot which then negates and throws away getting our body weight into leaning into the disc. Essentially, lost distance and control. The other thing clearly apparent between the average golfers and the 990+ golfers is that the 990+ golfers knees stay very close together (that 20 degree line) and the average golfers legs seem to separate and come apart. the 990+ golfers left knee is bent but both thighs are aligned. Everyone who wishes to improve their technique, should get their disc buddies to shoot a photo of their release from the front of the tee with their cell phones and see how they are lining it up.

The other observation to take into account is that all these photos are taken in FRONT of the tee pad, all with a long zoom lens far enough away to not be a distraction. This alignment is not as easy to see behind the tee pad. So people who are even playing with 1000 rated players would likely not even notice this from behind the tee pad. Disc golf etiquette dictates that you stand behind the person throwing, and so therefore this is easy to overlook.

Hopefully Dave will have a lot to say about the proper footwork to get set up like this, and it will be very interesting to see before / after photos of players who are willing to work on fixing these issues.

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OK everybody, I got the OK from Dave for classes on BOTH Saturday and Sunday.

Both classes will begin at 12:00pm NOON to allow out of town golfers to drive here safely without having to depart at some ridiculously early time. This will allow PDX golfers to have a relaxed morning and go out to breakfast and not have to rush.

Dave asked that you please specify with a note when you are on PayPal, which day you want to take the class. This is so he can keep track of who's coming on what day.

I'm pretty sure he's going to allow folks to flip flop their Sat or Sun classes if they must miss one but he want's to avoid having 50 people registered on Sat to show up on Sun and make the Sun class too big and clunky.

There is a new flyer attached to reflect the change to both Sat and Sun at NOON. Can't wait to see the results this class has on all these students, it's going to be a lot of fun. I feel sorry for everybody's disc buddies who aren't taking the class. They are gonna get schooled!

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Dave just got back from Australia where he took yet another championship and defeated the best Australian players by 26 strokes. Dave now has won championships in 11 countries. He has put together the finalized dates for Dave's Driving School and I will list them here.

There is still room in the class so if you haven't signed up yet you can still get in! Dave wants to limit classes to 50 people per day.
$100 for five classes. Send $100 via Paypal to dfeldber@uoregon.edu. For questions and to let him know what day you want to go to class, please send email to davefledberg (at) hotmail.com.

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Just wondering if you are Dave's Marketing manager? It seems like it would be good for Dave to come on here and answer questions and get in touch with the local disc golf community. I would think that would also show his supporters and students a strong gesture of stepping outside your comfort zone.

PDGA #25296Stumptown #34

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You are correct! It would be very cool for Dave to get on here and get in touch. I am not Dave's marketing manager. I had volunteered to help him with basic website updates for Dave Feldberg.com and he asked me to help post the info on this site.

Funny thing is that there are still a large contingent of extremely high (and low) rated disc golfers who just aren't really into the whole computer thing. This is probably worthy of a discussion topic in and of itself. The game of disc golf attracts people who don't require computers for work, and aren't interested in computers for entertainment and communication.

Without naming names, I can think of several Pro Open and Pro Master players that I play with occasionally who still don't own a computer or have an email address. Some have an email account with an old outdated computer and they may only check their email once a month. This may be hard to believe for most of us who are plugged in 24/7.

In Dave's case, I believe that he just doesn't have the time. He owns a laptop which he takes on tour to check email and register for events. As far as online activity, I think as far as he gets is following his online fantasy NFL football team. Anyone who has spent an afternoon or evening hanging out with him knows that his phone rings 24/7 with phone calls from sponsors, business people, tournament directors, players from all around the globe, etc. This is what happens when you become the #1 ranked in a sport that is growing as fast as disc golf is growing.

Frankly I am shocked that he even has the time to do Dave's Driving School. I think this is kind of his way of connecting to the local disc golf community. Potentially if he were on here, he would be constantly bombarded with private messages and questions of people asking what grip to use and what disc to throw and it's probably easier to just do his clinic as he loves nothing more than talking technique.

It could also be that he is a lousy typer! I type 70 wpm because I took a year long typing class in 7th grade because all the hot girls were doing the typing class and I ended up being the only guy in the class. I got typed notes from all the cute girls and I learned how to type really good! This was in 1982 when typing was taught on the old manual ribbon type writers. (This is why I tend to ramble.) In 1982, typing was seen as a useless skill unless one was going to be a secretary. I never cared much for useful classes so I always took the classes with the most girls. I think a lot of people shy away from discussion threads and such since they suck at typing and it's too frustrating to spend hours with 2 index fingers trying to type a sentence.

The other scenario is that certain people who are really good at something (like disc golf), are so committed to that skill, that they suck at almost everything else, and don't have much capacity for other activities. This reminds me of a documentary I saw on John Frusciante the current guitar player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The story about him was when their original guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a drug overdose, they had open auditions for the guitar spot. John was a qualified guitar player but the band immediately noticed that he was different from other guys. He didn't have a drivers license or a car so they had to pick him up and take him home. He didn't have a checking account. No credit card. They had to pay him in cash. But this guy just ripped the guitar and nobody else even got close to matching his guitar ability.

I have artist friends here in Portland that still don't have a cell phone and can't deal with maintaining a drivers license and a car. They are really good at what they are into doing and they just don't have any capacity for the basic administrative skills most of us can't imagine being without.

Next time I'm at Dave's place, I will try and show him this community and see if I can get him to sign up! Maybe someone needs to volunteer to teach him how to type. Maybe a really good typer can trade typing lessons for disc driving lessons! Wouldn't that be awesome?